Belle Starr Teaser!

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Wecome to Normalville, USA - Population: You

Last year, I was fishing around for a new idea for a series. I do a lot of sci fi and fantasy, but haven't really done any paranormal.

I was thinking about the lives we hide, as opposed to the faces we show to the world. What came to mind is a place where everybody has there secrets, and in some cases, everyone else knows those secrets. Its the most normal place in the world, isn't it?

Anyhow, here's a snippet from Snow Fire: Chrysalis. My first visit to Normalville, USA.


Available at Changeling Press:
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1103

Blurb:

Kell is haunted by memories of a place that doesn’t exist. He dreams of a face he’s never seen. He senses that somehow, his life is wrong. Compelled by loneliness and isolation, he walks away from everything in a quest for answers.

Come with Kell as he journeys down a long, snowy highway to a mysterious town called Arcada. Maybe, just maybe, he will find his answers there.

And maybe he will find himself as well.

Excerpt:

Vintage sports cars don’t handle all that well in the snow.

Not that the elderly Jag lets me down all that often, but as we crawled through drifts on Highway 70, I began to get the feeling that my long journey was about to come to an end.

The snow fell in those tiny, crystalline flakes that are so fine they dazzle the eye. When you try to make a snowball, it just falls apart like sand between the fingers. At first, it barely settled on the roadway, dancing away from the headlights of the car, but in time, the snow began to drift and blow across the road, eventually obscuring the roadway completely. I navigated using the slight elevation of the blacktop and the instinct that rarely lets me down. I was guided by the odd compulsion that had taken me from all that I knew for the promise of all that should be.

I’d been wandering in a funk for what seemed years, having sold my apartment and my business. Life had dried up, lost its appeal. One Tuesday I looked around and found myself alone, friendless and so painfully, obviously different from the general population, that it was clearly time to move on.

In the midst of my unhappiness, I remembered a face I’d never seen. I had memories of events that had never happened. A place came to mind, the memory of a small town that my family had visited in my youth. It was quintessential small town America, a town square, City Hall. The sort of place you generally see only on a movie set. Normal. In fact, that was the nickname of the place. While I couldn’t remember the name of the small city, I vividly remembered the signs entering the city limits. They playfully welcomed the traveler to “Normalville, USA.” I’d forgotten the state, the name of the town, even what part of the country we’d been in. Only that happy sign lingered in my memory. Funny, though, my parents never recalled seeing that sign. In fact, they hadn’t remembered the town at all. I couldn’t forget.

Welcome to Normalville, USA.

The Man of my Dreams

It seems logical to write about Dorian and Phaedre, the two lead characters from Soul Keeper. However, logic is something I am rarely afflicted with, so, I’m actually going to tell you about a very minor character from the story, and how he ended up making his presence known to me.

First off, Soul Keeper wasn’t the first book I sat down to write, but it was the first that I finished. I didn’t have a particularly clear outline of the book, so I suppose that’s why the door was left open for Roman to enter. I knew the plot, the ending and pretty much how they got there, but I guess my subconscious decided that something was missing.

One night, I had one of those short, vivid dreams that literally bring you out of the bed. In the dream, I was riding a bus. We were on a route that wound through San Francisco’s Presidio, near Baker Beach. The bus stopped and I get on. (That’s the odd logic of dreams…) I took a seat next to the doors and looked at the man sitting across from me.

He was frightening. He was dark, but I was unable to decide what his ethnicity was. His hair was shaved close to his scalp, and he wore a dark, expensive suit. He wore sunglasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew they were silvery-green. He was huge. Even sitting, his knees pushed out into the aisle. He was handsome in his way, but very, very intimidating. He then smiled at me, and with that smile, I knew this was a good, safe person.

We got off the bus at the same stop, and he paused as though he didn’t recognize where he was. I realized that he was lost. He gave me a slip of paper with an address on it, and we walked to that address together. He knew that his name was Roman, and he knew his home was nearby, but he couldn’t remember how to get there.

Roman was brain-injured.

He might have been inspired by someone I’d met a few years back. Perhaps he represented the head injury I’d suffered myself years ago. Whatever the case, Roman very quickly found his place in Soul Keeper. For me, he represents things lost and gained. For Phaedre and Danae, he is safety in a very real and literal sense. For Kaine and Dorian, he represents the failure of the Equis to take care of their own.

Every character in the book is reflected by how they dealt with Roman’s injury.

What I found most interesting about the character is his grace. Roman carries a heavy burden, but never grieves over the loss of the person he once was. His family and friends grieve for him. Roman simply moves on. He has a very real appreciation for his life in spite of the hardships that he experiences. Roman can’t read well, but has discovered a genius for computer skills. He can’t handle a pencil or tell his left from his right, but earned a living as a bodyguard and security expert. Sometimes the frustration is there, but he always manages to set it aside and adapt.

Roman reminds me of patience and persistence. He reminds me not to judge others. Roman reminds me to listen to my inner voice.

I’m not quite certain which direction Roman will travel, but I have every intention of going along for the ride. Literally. Did I mention that he’s a shape-shifting centaur?

You can read about Roman, and all the other magical creatures in Soul Keeper, coming very soon to New Concepts Publishing.

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